Testing your knowledge of sabermetric history
Every college student knows about the wonders of Sporcle. For the uninitiated, it’s essentially millions of different quizzes about anything and everything you could think of. For example, you could be asked to name every Adam Sandler movie or the 20 most populated cities in Iowa (with a time limit of course). A reader named Ben Lindbergh sent me a quiz he and his friend created, on the history of sabermetrics. Basically, you have to name the inventor of a whole bunch of baseball stats and concepts, from +/- to Zone Rating, in ten minutes or less. Here’s the link if you’d like to try your luck. Let us know how you did in the comments section. Here’s a quick hint to get you started: Our own Dave Studeman is the proud owner of three of the answers.
I’m pretty sure it was Palmer who invented Linear Weights. At least, he is the one who coined the phrase. Though he did build off Lindsey’s work, as he noted in The Hidden Game of Baseball.
Absolutely a highlight of my life to be the answer to a Sporcle quiz. Great find, Dan!
Got 50. THT should hire the kid who made this quiz!
I got a 46. Can’t believe I missed Fox and Pappas.
I messed up the guy who did Linear Weights. I thought it was Pete Palmer.
I got 42. Missed easy ones like Gassko or Jazayerli. I missed Joe Sheehan because I spelled his name “Sheehen” and didn’t try it with an ‘a’ instead.
I got 43 correct and I’m only 15.
53/58
But I was guaranteed two of those.